E-Notes 3.17.09

E-Notes from the PGA TOUR PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FL March 17 , 2009 Written by Dave Lancer, Director Information • There are 37 events in the PGA TOUR regular season. In 2008, six of the Top-10 players in the standings in the FedExCup through the first 12 tournaments finished the regular season among the Top-10. The TOUR hit the 12 event mark this past weekend and the current Top-10 includes Geoff Ogilvy, Phil Mickelson, Nick Watney, Kenny Perry, Dustin Johnson, Zach Johnson, Pat Perez, Steve Stricker, John Rollins and Y.E. Yang. • There’s a really strong field assembled this week for the Transitions Championship with 27 players who have won in 2008 or 2009 entered. Included among them are K.J. Choi , a two-time winner of the event, and Vijay Singh , also a former champion. They’ll be joined by such others as Jim Furyk, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman, Zach Johnson, Kenny Perry, Adam Scott, Boo Weekley and defending champ, Sean O’Hair. • When Sean O’Hair opened eagle-eagle last week at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship, it marked the first time a player had started eagle-eagle since Chris Tidland at the 2007 Ginn sur Mer Classic. The last player to start eagle-eagle at Doral CC was David Toms who performed the feat back in 1999. • Michael Bradley had gone 11 years and 7 days since his last win before taking home the title at last week’s Puerto Rico Open presented by Banco Popular. It was also his first Top- 10 finish since a T9 at the 2000 Michelob Championship at Kingsmill. • Michael Campbell , the 2005 U.S. Open champ, will make his first PGA TOUR start since last year’s PGA Championship at this week’s Transitions Championship. • In winning last week’s CA Championship, Phil Mickelson needed only 99 putts thanks to four chip-ins during the week. Even at that, he didn’t lead the field in fewest putts. That honor went to Wen-Tang Lin who needed just 98. • The teenagers had a good week last week. Rory McIlroy finished T20 at the CA Championship while Tadd Fujikawa finished T31 at the Puerto Rico Open presented by Banco Popular. Another teenager will give it a go this week when Ryo Ishikawa makes his second TOUR start at the Transitions Championship. CHAMPIONS TOUR • Dan Forsman became the fifth different winner in five events on the 2009 schedule with his victory last week at the AT&T Champions Classic. It was his first Champions Tour victory since turning 50 last July and his first victory since the 2002 SEI Pennsylvania Classic on the PGA TOUR. • Forsman edged out a couple of other players who were also seeking their first Champions Tour victory. Fulton Allem, Ben Crenshaw and Joey Sindelar all finished T4 just two strokes back. • Joey Sindelar is off to a strong start in his second season on the Champions Tour. In his four starts this year, he’s finished T21 in his opener and since then has finished T7-T2-T4. He’s fifth on the Charles Schwab Cup points list. NATIONWIDE TOUR • There was an interesting oddity at the three events Down Under. In the Moonah Classic in Australia, Aussie players finished 1-2-3. The following week at the HSBC New Zealand PGA Championship, Kiwi players finished 1-2-3. Finally, at last week’s Michael Hill New Zealand Open, U.S. players finished 1-2-3. • Richard Johnson had a shot for the ages at last week’s Michael Hill New Zealand Open, holing his tee shot on the 347-yard, par-4 15 th hole during the final round. It’s the second ace on a par-4 in Nationwide Tour history and just the third on any of the three Tours. • The victory by Michael Bradley last week at the Puerto Rico Open presented by Banco Popular was the 242 nd win on the PGA TOUR by a former Nationwide Tour player. .

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